Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

VG45K: Rheinmetall’s 8mm Kurz Volksgewehr

October 8, 2022 Ian McCollum 95

As the end of World War Two loomed close, the German arms industry turned to a number of Volkssturm rifle designs. These were the crudest and simplest rifles that could be made to work with […]

Belgian Congo Force Publique FN49 Sniper

October 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 2

One of the rarest versions of the FN49 rifle is the Belgian Congo contract, made to equip the Force Publique there – the military force in the territory when it was a Belgian colony. A […]

Prototype 7.7mm Arisaka Type 99 Carbine

October 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

The Japanese military made the decision to move from a 6.5mm infantry rifle to a more powerful 7.7mm cartridge in the 1930s, with specifications for the new rifle proposed in 1938. In response, the Nagoya […]

VHS-1: Croatia Copies the FAMAS (But Not Really)

September 28, 2022 Ian McCollum 8

The VHS-1 was heavily influenced by the French FAMAS, albeit with a short stroke gas piston operating system. Early development began in the late 1990s with the prototype designs we looked in over the past […]

Yugoslav M70A: The AK With a Real Magazine Holdopen

September 26, 2022 Ian McCollum 15

Yugoslavia began development of a Kalashnikov pattern rifle in 1959. The Yugoslav rifle would be distinct from the standard Soviet model, as evidenced by features like the gas cutoff for grenade launching and the early […]

A Path Less Traveled: IM Metal’s Tavor-Based Prototype for the VHS-1

September 21, 2022 Ian McCollum 3

Today we are continuing to trace the development of the IM Metal / HS Produkt VHS rifles. During this period, Croatia briefly considered adopting the Israeli Tavor rifle. Part of the adoption would have included […]

Genesis of the VHS: IM Metal Gets a FAMAS

September 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 26

After their abortive effort at designing a bullpup AK conversion, IM Metal (later to become HS Produkt) decided to make another try at developing a rifle for the Croatian Army. This time, they decided to […]

CETME-L Handguards: The Poor Early Model and the Later Better One

September 13, 2022 Ian McCollum 1

The early production CETME-L (and CETME-LC) rifles used a thin, fragile, full-length handguard. It was redesigned fairly early in production with a much more durable version that provided better hand insulation. The Spanish Army updated […]

Croatia’s Prototype Bullpup AK Conversion

September 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 21

The HS Produkt company, best known for making the XD pistols sold in the US by Springfield, was originally called IM Metal, and was a general fabrication company in Croatia. When the Croatian Homeland War […]

Arex AKB-15: A Lost AK Modernization Project

August 31, 2022 Ian McCollum 27

The AKB-15 was a project developed by Arex Defense in Slovenia in 2015. The company received a request from a small country (they decline to reveal exactly who) to modernize a stock of AKM rifles […]